Pousada do Infante History:
This purpose-built Pousada has a superb position on the cliff-top overlooking Sagres fort and the lighthouse of Cape St Vicent, off which many great sea battles have been fought by the likes of Admirals Drake, Rodney, Nelson and Napier.
Since its erection in 1960, the Pousada has been constantly improved to cater for the increasing number of visitors who want to see this most south westerly corner of Europe and to learn something of the history of the man who gave his name to the Pousada, Infante D. Henrique, is Portuguese for Prince Henry, the son of King João I and his English-born queen Philippa Lancaster, who founded a navigation school here early in the 15th century.
As you sip your Sagres beer on the terrace, remember Prince Henry planned expeditions which prodded and probed their way down the west coast of Africa and then, via the Azores and Madeira, to the New World. His fleets reached India and it is no coincidence that Bombay is so named. It is a corruption of the Portuguese boa baía (good bay). Goa, which has beaches to rival Portugal’s, remained Portuguese territory until 1961.